My wife and I were two of five on the "Organising Team" for a fundraiser a couple of years ago. We had set a target of $42k and set about thinking of ways to get it.
It quickly became clear that some things were only ever going to earn a small portion of that total. Things like sausage sizzles, selling chocs etc. We did include these as some of the people whose services we could call upon could only give a small amount of time etc.
In the end, we decided to go straight for the biggy. We renovated a house over a twelve week period, - getting tradesmens services and/or goods cheap or in many cases free.
Long story short, the whole fundraising affair was drawn out over about 4 months, - during which we made just over $5k on a quiz night (ALL prizes donated free), around $1k on chocs, $1k on a sausage sizzle, and about $45k on the renovated house !!!
Granted, Perth was in a boom market at the time, and many tradies and suppliers were happy to give to our chosen charities. All in all we raised just over $52k in the four months.
Would that help with a bit of extra gear
Think big - that's that way to do it.
Just my 2c